I can't keep up with all these faces and names...Is this the Advrider that is retired US Army and lives/lived in Manitou Springs CO used to post on Advrider under the name Wildman or Wild Man?

The very same! - Bart was part of the RMS supported If You See Kay Wines team from the USA this year... unfortunately he had broken his collar bone during training just a few weeks before the start of the rally, and was not only still in a fair degree of pain, but not willing to risk further injury or complications by competing...

He did however mange to ride his bike most days, following the RMS assistance crew to the various refuel and checkpoints and supporting the rest of the riders throughout the week.

I'll be posting a full summary interview with the whole IYSK Wine team as part of my event wrap-up shortly...

In the meantime, the first of the event summaries for my profiled rider's:

Tuareg Rallye 2013 - #332 Ollie Lloyd - final summary report

“One to watch...”

Participating in his first desert rally on a motorcycle, 20-year old Ollie Lloyd overcame first-day nervousness and inexperience in the treacherously soft Tunisian sand, and progressed steadily through the field to finish the event just one step away from the podium, and well ahead of his nearest rival.

“Right from the beginning I probably had the worst day ever on a bike!” he exclaims “I was totally unprepared for how soft the dunes were here [in Tunisia]. “It took me over seven hours before I was able to leave the stage, whereas many of the other competitors had actually finished in half that time!”

Fortunately for Ollie, who was riding his large capacity (690cc) KTM rally bike, he found the subsequent stages featured terrain far more appropriate and familiar to his riding style - the fast tracks and open going combined with more defined navigation allowed him to make steady progress through the field and leave the nightmare of that first day behind.

“I’d learnt a lot of techniques in the first couple of days” he explains “So when it came to the dune stages in the middle of the rally, I was far more at ease and prepared. “If I did get stuck in the sand, I was able to recover my bike in a couple of minutes, where before it might have taken twenty...” he grins.

As his confidence increased, so too his stage results dramatically improved. He finished the second day as runner-up, followed by a trio of stage wins on days four, five and six - something vary rarely achieved at this level of competition - which helped to propel him into the top ten, with a final result of 4th overall in the Moto Amateur class.

“The rally was a real eye-opener” he concludes “The first day I was exhausted, but still had to service my bike [Ollie had elected to undertake all his own maintenance too, rather than use an assistance team], prepare my road book, eat, sleep... at the time I didn’t know how I was going to manage!”

Fortunately his ability to keep a level head paid dividends throughout the week, while the highs and lows he experienced on the Tuareg Rallye will undoubtably prove beneficial throughout the rest of the 2013 rallye season, and beyond... certainly based on his performance in Tunisia, it should not be too long before we see this young British rider taking his first step onto the podium.

ends.

results #332 Ollie Lloyd - class: Moto Amateur

Day 1: 21st
Day 2: 2nd
Day 3: timing suspended
Day 4: 1st
Day 5: 1st
Day 6: 1st
Day 7: 6th

I'll be posting a full summary interview with the whole IYSK Wine team as part of my event wrap-up shortly...

Don't touch that dial!

Jx

looking forward to it. I'm late to this party and never have been much of a rally fan but when I saw Ned's post on the thread I had a look. skimming through it looks like a lot of fun doing this rally (assuming it is from the passenger seat of one of the support vehicles I'm just a tad too old for this kind of thing and hate riding in sand) and I'm thinking maybe I need to pay a little closer attention. you're doing a thankless job but a great one never the less with all this reporting, I love these rider profiles and now just in time for their wrap ups. Ollie Lloyd, how do you not like a name like that? 20 years old and fresh as a daisy. And I'd been wondering where Bart Combs has been since my last trip to Colorado almost 7 long years ago, he kind of dropped off the adv radar. Sorry for the hijack, please continue.

man you really got this rally bug don't you? congrats on your finish thats awesome. Is the 505 the $30K rally purpose built bike from KTM?

I can stop any time I want! Thanks, and no, the 505 is a leftover cross country race model that I put spare parts from Dakar onto to create a rallybike. The purpose built one is a 450RFR (Rally Factory Replica)- there were a few of those there, too. The 505 shares engine architecture but very little else.

Quote:

Originally Posted by nachtflug

What the heck do you do if you need a rest room out there!!

This last question is the easiest of all- you use the room with a view.

Funny story about that, at one point I was running with Martin Fontyn, we'd traded places a few times already. I passed him in some rocks, did about 20k up to a checkpoint, and he pulled in as I was pulling out. I couldn't hold it anymore, stopped at the next turn after examining my motives and deciding I was unwilling to piss my pants. Sure enough, he went by, I tracked him for the next 30k... and then it was my turn to pass him when he had to go. We had a good laugh at that in the evening.

When you get a chance, shoot over those pictures of my ex, would you?

__________________Doubletake Mirrors- Folding D/S mirror that is both useful and indestructible.

An accomplished desert racer and rally rider, not only is Ned Suesse one of very few Americans to have participated in the notorious Dakar Rally - but his solid finish (53rd position overall) in the 2012 event was particularly impressive for a debut rider.

However, Ned’s decision to participate in the Tuareg Rallye this year was a far more relaxed affair “I enjoyed the Dakar immensely, but preparing for such a big event is very tough on the rest of your life” he explains “So it was an easy decision to come here and get back to doing what I enjoy most - riding [racing] off-road with a great bunch of people somewhere new and exciting!”

Ned was aware the calibre of rider in the Profi class was very high, and that the event organizers had promised some seriously challenging stages with the move to Tunisia this year. “To be honest I was surprised at the technical nature of some of the special stages - they were more like a hard-enduro than a traditional rallye stage!” he exclaims.

With little pretension to placing particularly highly, Ned simply got on with the job of navigating well and enjoying the riding, freely admitting that soft sand dunes were not his speciality.

Fortunately Ned had chosen the ideal machine to ride in this event, a KTM 505 Enduro with a lightweight Rally Moto kit - built using spare parts from his Dakar bike. This allowed him to make the most of the available performance while many other riders on larger and heavy bikes struggled.

After finishing in 2nd position on the 4th stage - set against the backdrop of the Star Wars movie set - he summed up the day perfectly: “We used to bulls-eye womp rats back home!” he grinned - the quote illustrating how he was able to exploit his familiarity with similar terrain that he rides regularly in Colorado, while others clearly struggled with the changing conditions throughout the day.

A succession of strong stage finishes meant Ned was never out of the top ten overall, and the consistency and levelheadedness he had shown during the Dakar once again paid dividends - while faster riders made mistakes, Ned paid particular attention to his navigation (although he admits he found the accuracy of the roadbook very frustrating at times), and did not push himself or his machine unnecessarily - resulting in a podium position 46 minutes ahead of the third-placed rider.

Perhaps his whole ethos towards racing, and his participation in this event particularly can be summed up by the inspiration he employed to secure another 2nd place stage result - just one minute away from the race leader: “I’d reached the start of the final sector at about 11.45am, and already knew the hotel we’d be staying at that evening stopped serving lunch at 2pm - I factored that I could just about make it in time (which he did!), so that was all the motivation I needed... and it all came up Ned!”

ends.

Ned Suesse was part of the US rally team supported by Rally Management Services and If You See Kay Wines during the Tuareg Rally.

results #97 Ned Suesse (USA) - class: Moto Profi

Day 1: 10th
Day 2: 3rd
Day 3: timing suspended
Day 4: 2nd
Day 5: 2nd
Day 6: 4th
Day 7: 14th

For his first foray into desert rally racing, Mark had elected to ride what many will consider to be the definitive ‘Dakar’ bike - a limited edition factory-built KTM 690 Rallye, designed specifically for crossing desert terrain at high speed.

“I really enjoyed the rally - it offered really varied terrain, and challenging stages - so very much what I imagined... although to be honest a lot of the time it [the route] felt more like an extreme enduro event, with very technical riding - and certainly if I’d known it was going to be like that beforehand, then I would more likely have entered on my lightweight enduro bike rather than the big KTM 690 Rallye - which as it turned out, wasn’t so appropriate a lot of time” he admits.

“It was hard to push for a position riding the Rallye bike - particularly early on in the dunes” he explains “It takes a lot of effort and strength to ride a big bike though the soft sand and more challenging rocky sections, and after I hurt my leg [on the 4th day], it became very hard to control the bike, and I really wasn’t able to ride confidently or safely in those conditions” he explained.

Having taken the start of day 5 despite ongoing pain, Mark elected to withdraw from that stage and ride directly to the final bivouac where he could properly rest and recover.

With 48 hours rest, Mark felt strong enough to ride the final stage (day 7) and complete the event, although he admits that each time he put any pressure on the leg to balance the bike, he was in severe pain... “I hadn’t taken any pain killers this morning, and it was excruciating to be honest!” he grimaces “But I just had to push through to the end...” Fortunately the last stage was a short sprint through 45 kms of dunes, and despite his discomfort, Mark was able to finish his rally on a high with a final stage position of 25th in the Moto Amateur class.

“I’m happy to have been able to finish... but the accident meant that a good result wasn’t to be” He concludes. Mark will now concentrate on racing extreme enduros for the rest of this season, and hinted he would like to return to the Tuareg Rallye next year on a more appropriate [lightweight] machine.

I can't keep up with all these faces and names...Is this the Advrider that is retired US Army and lives/lived in Manitou Springs CO used to post on Advrider under the name Wildman or Wild Man?

Hey Scott! Yep, that's me. I'm still around but post infrequently due to the demands of my "encore" career. I've still got pics of all of us heading up Pikes Peak after West Fest in 2006 (including Neduro), and still try to make as many ADV riding/rally events as possible.

As far as the Tuareg goes this year, I suppose I'll tell the "rest of the Bart story" through Jenny shortly, but suffice it to say I'll start a separate thread in Face Plant on how NOT to train for a big overseas rally opportunity once you've paid and entered.

It was a blast nonetheless. And you're not too old.... I turned 50 last year.

He was trying to do the Mongolian at that point. Didnt pan out, I was happy when I heard he was on this, and then crushed again when I heard he DNS'd. Great spirit. Wild man, for sure, haha!

Hey Jason!

Thanks for the kind words. The Mongolian Rally is still on my radar screen and given the tough break before Tuareg this year, I may try and pull something off sooner than later. More to follow in another thread if anything develops there.

I look forward to riding / racing with you again soon! I'm signed up for the Roaming Rally (NY-Ontario) this year if you're heading up that way this summer.